Mansfield Palace Theatre

Celebrate the messy beauty of human connection. From hidden identities and vanishing daughters to dog-boyfriends and resilient theatre troupes, this strand finds humour, heart, and hope in life’s strangest corners. All screenings are rated for an 18 and above audience.

The Ballad Of Squeaky Clean Mo (15:00) – Directed By Daniel Williams 

Rivkah, a Jewish cafe owner, tells the story of 'Squeaky Clean Mo', a down on his luck dishwasher who has been hiding his Jewish identity for years. When he starts working at her cafe, a romance begins to bubble...

The Plant Knows (14:52) – Directed By Jonathan Hawes 

When her teenage daughter vanishes, a grieving mother teams up with an eccentric botanist to decode cryptic messages from a cheeky talking plant.

Rot (4:15) – Directed By Euan Pollock Foulis, Saorsie Selway 

A young man, abandoned by society, slowly decays in his council flat.

You Can’t Imagine (18:42) – Directed By Marcelino Méduse

Dayann and Samir has been living their long-distance love story for several years. Every summer, they meet back for a few weeks in Réunion, their native island, where Dayann decided to stayed and work while Samir studies in Paris. Dayann is convinced that this time Samir is coming home for good…

Just Kids (7:37) – Directed By Alessandro Riconda 

Nine-year-old Alisha clashes with her opponent Ben on the rugby pitch - yet another boy who's not ready to lose to a girl. But she soon discovers the other children are not where her problems are coming from.

Nikko & K.Ji. – Hear This (3:11) – Directed By Pruga P 

The official music video for 'Hear This,' a song by Nikko & K.Ji.

Dog Person (8:51) – Directed By Harry Carr 

Lucy is upset when her new boyfriend, Simon, proposes that they have an open relationship. At home, Buddy, her dog, comforts her. She wishes he was human; he would make the perfect boyfriend. The next day, she wakes up and her wish has come true.

Hot Mess (3:09) – Directed By Tortor Smith 

Offers an insight into the intrusion of emotional abuse and ADHD in a compact and creative way. It highlights the damage and anxiety caused by a well-meaning, but ultimately toxic, parent who uses the power of voice to belittle, flatten and manipulate.

Shaken Not Stirred (15:00) – Directed By Dave MacFarlane 

A 14 strong amateur theatre company 'The Parky Players' take their production to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2024 with the main aim to raise awareness of the condition whilst supporting 5 members of the cast who are living with Parkinson's.

From ghostly visitations to accidental truth-telling, this strand explores the wonder tucked inside life’s quiet corners—where humour, healing, and magic unfold when you least expect them. All screenings are rated for an 18 and above audience.

Mail Order Queens (25:00) – Directed By Luke Purdye 

Beekeeping is beautiful, but it's broken. The extraordinary tale of why and what might be done to fix it began a century ago with a Benedictine monk, a tragic bee epidemic and a lifetime’s obsession that changed our relationship with the honey bee, forever.

Ana Of Calle Cuatro (13:00) – Directed By Kailin Wang 

On the eve of her quinceañera, a plucky Cuban-American teen is visited by the ghosts of three female ancestors in a magical quest to understand the power of womanhood.

The Case Of The Dirty Dishes (4:46) – Directed By Joe Rider 

A Film Noir Spoof of a Detective investigating why his kitchen is so damn messy.

Party Games (15:00) – Directed By Alfie Beard 

An out-of-touch politician gets a dose of reality when he visits an underfunded care home. Will he learn from the experience and campaign for change, or slip back into his old ways?

Blabbermouth (7:46) – Directed By Jamie Luke Milligan 

When an eleven year old budding impressionist performs for his family hoping to raise money for a new bike, his routine threatens to expose their deepest secrets unless they pay up.

Naomi (4:21) – Directed By Declan Smith 

When an enchanting stranger arrives at his door, a lonely young man is swept into an unforgettable night of magic.

Isle Of Mia (19:56) – Directed By Miguel Pinto, Francisco Morais 

During Summer break, Mia is facing some uncertainty regarding her future, whilst struggling to overcome trauma with her mom from past events.

This screening is held in the Directors Lounge with a capacity of 30.

Love’s chaos takes centre stage: estranged dads, dystopian bonds, and whispered goodbyes collide. But in a child’s innocence, a farm girl’s crush, and a joyful wedding, tenderness defiantly survives. All screenings are rated for an 18 and above audience.

Baby Steps (13:15) – Directed By Neilly Boyle 

As a new father, Jamie nervously awaits a job interview when his estranged father James unexpectedly turns up for the same job. As the men wait uncomfortably, both are confronted by their inadequacies as parents.

Queen Size (19:52) – Directed By Avril Besson

This morning, Marina has an appointment with Charlie to sell her a mattress. This evening, she will cancel her plane for Reunion. But they don't know that yet.

Memory (3:23) – Directed By Riyadh Haque 

An experimental documentary reimagining the childhood recollections of a Jersey inhabitant, Margaret, through the intimate lens of the director's British South Asian background by channelling his own family's generational diasporic experience and sisterhood.

How To Say Goodbye (8:00) – Directed By Thibaut Buccellato 

After their break-up, Mia has to return to her ex-girlfriend's apartment. This is going to be their very last moment together, before they say goodbye.

Desksdark (16:27) – Directed By Kane Wilson 

In a dystopian realm where consciousness is encased within neural implants, Logan, a solitary Decksdark, finds himself intertwined with an ethereal entity.

47 Inches (19:00) – Directed By Pascale Mompez

One night, Zélie, a 7 year old girl, sees her father coming home with her young aunt Clara. Clara is sad, does not leave the room and wears bandages on her wrists. Faced with the mystery of this closed door, Zélie understands that in order to get her aunt out of her melancholy, all she has to do is help her dispel the clouds in her head.

Connor & Ben (1:21) – Directed By Benjamin Kirk-Dodds 

Follow Connor and Ben across the years, from meeting for coffee to tying the knot. A short animation as a gift for my partner on our wedding day.

Wild Oats (7:42) – Directed By Rosa Duncan 

Rhona, a shy teenager stuck on her family’s farm, has a secret: she’s head-over-heels infatuated with celebrity crush Céline. Between endless chores, an overbearing father who can’t stay out of her room, and the chaotic interruptions of barnyard animals, Rhona can barely find a moment of privacy to explore her budding desires.

Go around the world in six shorts! From a Danish wedding meltdown and Albanian marital schemes to Tehrani black-market dilemmas, flirty museum antics, and a French caterpillar coma—this whirlwind tour serves heartbreak, humor, and humanity. Passport optional. All screenings are rated for an 18 and above audience.

Heartbreak (25:50) – Directed By August Aabo 

Albert and Sixten are getting married. Today. The only problem is that if they were completely honest with each other, they shouldn’t even be a couple anymore. Frictions arise on the morning of the wedding, and suddenly, it's obvious that something is utterly wrong.

47:10:00 (14:32) – Directed By Serna Amini 

After a devastating accident, Hossein learns his wife needs a heart transplant within forty-eight hours to survive. Desperate, he turns to the black market, where he is forced to make an unthinkable decision: sell his son to an infertile family to afford the surgery.

A Short Trip (17:16) – Directed By Erenik Beqiri 

Klodi and Mira, a young Albanian couple, decide to marry Mira to a Frenchman for 5 years in exchange for money, in order to obtain French nationality. They will then have to choose the right husband for her, and learn to detach themselves from each other.

Reconsolidation (15:00) – Directed By Abbie Lucas 

After a tragic accident takes the life of his best friend, a grief-stricken introvert copes with the loss using memory-alteration therapy, but he soon learns that some memories don't want to be forgotten.

Collage (9:51) – Directed By Marius Conrotto 

A girl who works in a museum tries to convince another co-worker that two visitors are flirting. And how does she know? Scientific studies say that there are six signs that show one person's attraction to another.

My Teenage Blackout (10:00) – Directed By Anaïs Colpin 

At a party, Tristan swallowed a caterpillar while downing a tequila shot. Ever since then, he’s been in a coma, thoughts running through his head – about that girl at the party, the
nurse smoking in his room, his overbearing mother, and the fact that he’ll never get to change his Facebook profile picture ever again.

This screening is held in the Directors Lounge with a capacity of 30.

Navigate life’s chaos through dark comedy, stoner misadventures, and biting societal critiques. From unskippable dystopian ads to animated existential quests, this strand tears into taboos—abortion, trans resilience and rape culture—with defiant humour and unflinching heart. All screenings are rated for an 18 and above audience.

OK/NOTOK (12:49) – Directed By Pardeep Sahota (Working Class Voices)

A genre bending love story set in the very near future with a darkly comic edge. Loretta, a working-class British Asian woman, attempts to navigate a turbulent world, a new stranger in her life and unskippable adverts.

A Few More Minutes, Please (10:00) – Directed By Dylan Scott (Narrative Shorts)

A quiet nineteen-year-old struggles to order at a restaurant while grappling with the building pressure to choose a purpose in life when he can't even choose what to order.

She’s Asking For It (9:55) – Directed By Natalia Zajączkowska (Women’s Voices)

A woman’s harrowing experience reveals the unsettling normalisation of sexual violence, exposing how cinema - and society - disguise abuse as romance, while directly calling out the audience’s complicity in perpetuating rape culture.

Big Deal (10:18) – Directed By Isabella Thompson (Women’s Voices)

A coming of age stoner comedy that follows two best friends, Casey and Sarah, on their quest to smoke weed before parting ways for university. In the spirit of making things up as they go along, the pair traverse the treacherous, middle class streets of North West London to rendezvous with a peculiar dealer/

Preggo (14:39) – Directed By Michelle Maria Gilson (Women’s Voices)

Miel’s conception was a trippy one, and now the pregnancy is just as bad. The moment she decides to terminate her pregnancy, Miel obtains the surreal power to see the inner child of the people she loves.

It Gets Better (8:38) – Directed By Asa Pegler (LGBTQIA+ Voices)

A short film highlighting the struggles young trans people go through in and around the U.K, whilst peppering in the impacts of grooming/sexual abuse, bullying, drug abuse and hypersexuality.

Venom & Faith By Justice (4:44) – Directed By Summer Flowers (Music Videos)

A country rock music video about what else other love and loss.

Where Is The World Headed? (20:00) – Directed By Mickaël Dupré (Animated Shorts)

In outer space, the captain of a crew, accompanied by his faithful robot, decides to abandon his duties to follow a creature called "Intuition". The creature takes him to a strange, mysterious desert planet where he hopes to find the meaning of existence.

From rebellious driving tests to breaking social barriers in 1980s Ontario, this strand explores personal revolutions -quiet, loud, and surreal—through characters who dare to rewrite their stories and reshape the rules. All screenings are rated for an 18 and above audience.

Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre (6:46) – Directed By Annabella Forbes 

Helen signed up for a normal driving test, with a normal test instructor, in a normal car. No one said anything about miming engine noises, being dumped on golf a course, or wandering herds of invisible cattle.

The Shade Of Chlorine (22:18) – Directed By Clément Dezelus 

Bilal lives off odd jobs he gets from the BOY application, but his head is filled with dreams of music. Hired to clean a luxurious villa, he falls under the spell of the mysterious Ulysses, the owners' son. This encounter will widen his horizons.

Grlhood (4:52) – Directed By Lauren McPoland 

Taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to experimental filmmaking, GRLHOOD explores a typical day in the life of a young woman trying to take a trip to the corner shop.

Bal Maiden (17:00) – Directed By Aella Jordan-Edge 

In an 18th century Cornish tin mining community, two isolated young women risk their lives to break free from abuse after a local miner pushes them to breaking point.

Single Woman Seeking Child (14:50) – Directed By Blain Watters 

Sandy wants a family, the only problem is that she’s very much single and it’s very much 1982. Jumping through hoops and breaking through barriers Sandy becomes the first single woman in Kingston, Ontario to have Artificial Insemination.

Sage (5:00) – Directed By Max Blustin 

The right words can oppose even the most destructive hate.

Lost Pitch – Speaking Silences (4:14) – Directed By J H 

Follows the day of a stunning, enigmatic woman, her life unfolding like a hypnotic dance between desire, secrecy, and deception. Every glance, every movement, every shadow hints at something hidden beneath the surface.

The Father, The Son and The Rav Kalmenson (15:00) – Directed By Dayan D. Oualid 

Yoel, 30, is what was called in the 90s a “Lubavitch”, an Orthodox Jew. Every Saturday morning, he goes, accompanied by his 6-year-old son, to honour Shabbat in the synagogue in his neighborhood, a primary school set up for the occasion.

This screening is held in the Directors Lounge with a capacity of 30.

MTFF25 concludes with a lavish in-person awards evening, celebrating all the incredible talent shown at MTFF25, and rewarding the chosen few, selected by our jury panel of industry veterans and local stars, with the coveted ‘Mansfield Film Award’, or ‘Manny’. All screenings are rated for an 18 and above audience.

MTFF25 Hompage